Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It’s an 80-year-old illustration showing the largest animals and plants in the world. The ugly little secret is item no. 10, that totally unnoticeable line in the middle of the picture just below the dinosaur and the snake.

All you have to do is click on the page and the image will turn interactive and you can find out what that is. (Psst! There’s a spoiler a couple of paragraphs down.)

WARSAW, Ohio -- Strip-club owner Tommy George rolled up to the church in his grabber-orange Dodge Challenger, drinking a Mountain Dew at 9 in the morning and smoking a cigarette he had just rolled himself.

Pastor Bill Dunfee stepped out of a tan Nissan Murano, clutching a Bible in one hand and his sermon in the other, a touch of spray holding his perfectly coiffed 'do in place.

A game called "Alien Attack" at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Big Timecelebration in Roseto encouraged players to shoot darts at the head and heart of an image of a suited black man holding a health care bill and wearing a presidential seal.

Irvin L. Good Jr., president of Hellertown-based Goodtime Amusements, said the game wasn’t meant to depict President Barack Obama, but he acknowledged he’s received two complaints since its April debut, including one complaint at the Big Time.

“Yes, a woman talked to me about it,” Good said today.“She said she was offended by it. I said if you are, you might want to be. But you’re interpreting it as being Obama. We’re not interpreting it as Obama. The name of the game is ‘Alien Leader.’ If you’re offended, that’s fine, we duly note that.”

When it was suggested the health bill and presidential seal might lead players to believe the game did depict Obama, Good said, “You may be right there.”

There was a family gathering, with all generations around the table. Mischievous teenagers put a Viagra tablet into Grandpa's drink, and after a while, Grandpa excused himself because he had to go to the toilet.

When he returned, however, his trousers are wet all over.

'What happened, Grandpa?' he is asked by his concerned children.

'Well,' he answered, 'I don't really know. I had to go to the toilet.So I took it out and started to pee, but then I saw that it wasn't mine, so I put it back!'

Artificial insemination. Poisoned lakes. Decapitated cutthroats. It's all part of a paradoxical plan to save the state fish.

SPOLAND, SWEDEN — Mikael Karlsson owns a snowmobile, two hunting dogs and five guns. In his spare time, this soldier-turned-game warden shoots moose and trades potty-training tips with other fathers. Cradling 2-month-old Siri in his arms, he can’t imagine not taking baby leave. “Everyone does.”

From trendy central Stockholm to this village in the rugged forest south of the Arctic Circle, 85 percent of Swedish fathers take parental leave. Those who don’t face questions from family, friends and colleagues. As other countries still tinker with maternity leave and women’s rights, Sweden may be a glimpse of the future.

In this land of Viking lore, men are at the heart of the gender-equality debate. The ponytailed center-right finance minister calls himself a feminist, ads for cleaning products rarely feature women as homemakers, and preschools vet books for gender stereotypes in animal characters. For nearly four decades, governments of all political hues have legislated to give women equal rights at work — and men equal rights at home.